


I boop you back

by LittleDesertFlower



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M, Fluff, One Shot, Post-Volume 4 (RWBY)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 20:32:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12565628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleDesertFlower/pseuds/LittleDesertFlower
Summary: (find me at @fic_flower)





	I boop you back

**Author's Note:**

> Written in honor of a dear friend's birthday

The empty bed just stares back at them. Nora almost thinks of running back to the reception desk and very unsubtly talking the clerk into getting them another bed, if not another room. Almost. Her heart jumps out of her chest into her larynx, and she gulps. “Ren...” she starts saying. His name is like a song to her, and Nora still makes a full recital out of it, even after so long.

For years, he’s been the adult in this friendship—the mum friend, as Nora would so often put it—, so he just takes a deep breath for the both of them and appeases her. “It’s no big deal,” he says quietly, not even needing her to finish her sentence to know what she means. Nora’s readable through her facial expressions, childlike in one end, enchanting in the other. That round face is the last thing he always sees when he goes to sleep at night, before any nightmares can harm him. “We can share.”

“No no no no no no no no no no. No,” she says instantly. “Just take the bed, you’re awfully tired—those weapons are heavy—and I just won’t let you sleep at all, so yeah, please take the bed, I’m sure the floor’s _fiiiine_.”

Ren pierces her eyes with a serene glance, then his gaze moves to the bed, analyzing, and his voice is still calm when he claims: “Two people can fit in there,” he says over her rambling. Softly. Matter-of-factly.

He looks at her, warm in the center of his body, in spite of the tiredness of his muscles and the ache in his feet. He’s painfully aware of her willingness to actually take the floor. Without a second thought, he imagines her lying against the naked wood, a thin blanket over her, and his heart quivers. They’ve both been sleeping rough for a long time now, surrounded by vast woods, their only protection a shared one with Ruby and Jaune. Qrow was no improvement on that, nobody slept any sounder. Ren feels safer now, in a tiny old room with Nora, than he’s felt for months on the outdoors they’re both so used to.

The shimmering of the streetlight comes in from the window, the light of dawn is already marring the darkness outside, but it makes no difference. They’re exhausted enough to sleep through the morning, probably the entire afternoon too. Ren sighs. “Do you wanna go to bed?”

Nora grins evilly and rubs her hands, hammer leaning against a corner of the room.

He smiles before he can roll his eyes. “I mean,” he says, “shower, PJs, actually going to sleep…” There’s not been a day on this earth he hasn’t laughed interiorly at Nora’s innuendos—or Nora’s understanding of _his_ innuendos—. Ren laughs because it hurts, something inside him twists ever so slightly when she says those things, when it’s so obvious to him how little she must _mean_ them. Sure, her eyes are clear and her stance is calm, but her words… they can’t be true. They’re old friends, but nothing more, joking notwithstanding. It would never work, Ren reminds himself. No matter how much he might want it to.

Because she doesn’t want it—she can’t, can she?

* * *

 

“So, we made it, huh?” Nora says after a while. The silence has gotten too thick to stand. Honestly, Ren’s surprised she hasn’t broken it sooner, and his surprise grows when he sees how _still_ she looks. Peaceful. _Happy_. Like she’s home… If he closes his eyes, he can picture the feeling of familiarity going through her, almost as if it were his own.

Their bodies hurt, even on such a soft mattress, even if they should be used to the strain by now. Walking, sparring, walking some more, sleeping on dirt patches and abandoned cracked sidewalks. They feel as if some part of all that was lost the second they stepped onto the helicopter.

That was the first shower they’ve had since leaving, everything in the room—even themselves—smells clean and perfect, the sheets are so soft, and Nora can feel Ren breathing next to her, and the bed is so _soft…_ She sinks further into it, legs curled to preserve the body heat under the short comforter, trying hard not to touch him and make him shy away. It’s her rule: she’s allowed to pester him with stupid silly jokes and hinted clues at her _stupid_ silly feelings, but she can’t actually channel any of it through touch. She can’t risk pushing him away, despite all the proof she has he probably wouldn’t leave.

“What do you think’s waiting for us out there?” Ren asks then, his voice barely a whisper. If he closes his eyes, the first thing he feels is the breath of that hideous creature, killer to the entire town of Kurogiri and of Ren’s old life. He feels his gut twitch in fear, even if that monster’s already dead. He can’t help but wonder what new monsters await. And what they will take away from him this time.

“Hopefully, things I can _smash_ ,” she says, and she laughs a little. Yes, Nora would bring the world down on its knees by smashing it to pieces, and she might actually make a better world out of the shards. Her innocent crazy façade hides more kindness than Ren has seen since meeting her. She’s loud and sometimes a little too obnoxious, but her hand is the first one Ren would hold in the apocalypse, and probably the last one as well.

“I think it’s a little darker than that,” he replies, laughing a little with her. He can’t help it. He knows that if this world ends, Nora will take him hand-in-hand into whatever gets rebuilt from it. It’s something he feels he can count on, something that was proved right when she took his hand earlier. It’s wordless, but it’s there. And it’s a promise he’ll treasure forever.

“ _Iiiiis_ that gonna stop me?”

He doesn’t laugh now, his curved lips return to normal. “It should…” he mutters, unsure whether or not to really say it out loud. It should. It should worry her…. like it worries him. Like it worries him she might get hurt _._ Like it worries him she will not be there someday. She’s just … _always_ been there, he… he couldn’t take it _._

Gently, he turns on his side and looks at her wide eyes, teal and glowing, a lighthouse in the middle of the sea of darkness that threatens the kingdoms. He just … looks at her, hides everything behind his eyes, behind that simply lonely gesture. They’re so close it takes no effort to free his hand from beneath the covers, crackling like fire when he does, and softly touch the tip of her nose with his fingertips—it’s cold against his warm hand.

“Boop…” he whispers.

That single word is all Nora needs to grab him softly by the neck that very second and push her lips up against his. “I boop you back…” she says, nose pressed against Ren’s cheekbone.

They giggle almost at once. And the world, tonight, is a little bit warmer, a little less dark because of that.

Theirs. After so long…

**Author's Note:**

> To me, 'boop' has always been their 'I love you', I don't really know why - so I thought it was cute to give them a little moment after all the stuff they've been through.  
> And let's see what Volume 5 brings on xD


End file.
